Creation Mass

Creation Mass is a choral work composed in 2000-1 with music by Neil Ardley and words by Patrick Huddie. These are based on the traditional form of the Latin Mass - Gloria, Kyrie, Credo, Sanctus,
Agnus Dei - to which Patrick Huddie has added six additional sections. Neil Ardley has set the words for junior and senior choirs, two soloists and narrator, two pianos and percussion with music
that is both contemporary and tuneful, contemplative and lively.

The story of creation told in Creation Mass in based on modern scientific understanding, but interpreted through a poet's eyes. The work celebrates the creation of the Universe in a colossal
expansion (the Big Bang) some 12 billion years ago, and the later emergence of the Sun and Earth from the debris of an exploding star or supernova. The Earth is central to Creation Mass, being
seen as our only home, immensely precious and beautiful but subject to the damage that we are capable of inflicting upon it just as we inflict cruelty upon each other. Yet the work finds grounds
for hope, and seeks for a true way towards peace with the help of wise or holy ones from various traditions. We will need all the help we can get to survive this millennium.